Carstensz Expedition Log 2 April 2009
Expedition Log 18 March to 2 April 2009
18 March Fly to Sugapa the trekking road head, by Twin Otter.Arrive 10:30 am. At 2200m we are above the Malarial belt. There are three local tribes here, Dani, Moni and Dawa. Police authority needs signing by local Chief of Police, who is in a far away village. Group invited to join church service, this one is Protestant. It goes on for 2 hours by which time most of us have lost the will to live.
No news from Chief of Police by evening. We stay in the primary school.
19 March Wait all day for contact (by phone) with Chief of Police, who seems to need a personal visit by our agent (bribe money?) so Steven Liwe plans to fly to Enatoli Village tomorrow and phone back with permission.
20 March Permission arrives by phone at 15:00 hrs, but the porters are not able to start because A) it is market day B) they need a three hour debate about paying bribes to the village we are NOT going through (Acenemba Kampong, this was on the old route) which is demanding 6,000 USD plus a laptop. (they have no electricity and cannot use computers) They settle in the end for 600 USD and no laptop. Our cook, John, who is the same incompetent cook I had in 2007, insists that we can make the trek in 5 days in and 3 days out. We do not discover till the porters are asked, they do not agree to this accelerated program (which would have been impossibly hard anyway).
21 March Start trek with 4 hour walk to the last village, Suwagama. Stopped three times for bribes/tolls for passing through other villages. There is a funeral in progress at Suwagama with big bonfire for making roast pig and vegetables. Peter the Aussie askes "is the bloke in the fire mate?"
Descend to 1700m in jungle and trek 3 hours to Ayr Garam (2000m) camp. Two landslips to pass with easy track but some serious fall potential.
Trekking and camping in mud. Camp looks like the Somme in 1915. Members with gum boots have fared better than those with boots and gaiters. (This was to be the case throughout the trip). Ponchos were found to be too hot in the jungle, and over the next two days were discarded by the members.
22 March Trek to Honai Camp (2661m) 7 hours, of which one and a half hours was spent bridge building with vines and thin logs.
23 March Trek to Rifa Camp (4318m), 4 hours. Quote of the day, Omar "Going for a dump in the jungle at night is the most terrifying experience!"
Lots of log bridges through the jungle, fallen logs often making the only route through the undergrowth, twisted roots and mud. Loads of ferns, tree orchids, bracket fungi, vines and random hanging things
24 March Trek to Muddy Pool Camp. (3582m) The morning begins with big porter argument, one of the tribes (Dani ?) demanding higher wages (the Chief of Police will later harangue them at length about this). First sight of Carstensz group today,viz. the Nga Pulu summits. Spent most of the day wading through the Bog of Ages.
25 March Trek to Naseh Dome camp (3732m) 5 hours. Lovely Heathland walking today, with recognizable plants, Gentians, Cottoneaster etc. We have the great pleasure of good weather too. Inspite of the apparently endless grazing grounds here there is no sign of previous habitation or megafauna. (Evidenced by undisturbed rocks and boulders everywhere). We assume the ring barrier of jungle has quarantined this zone. Porters hesitant to proceed as they say we are crossing another tribes ground, but they are led by a small boy who is either brave or ignorant. Sad piles of rubbish at camp, left by previous expeditions. Rain till 23:00 hrs, Porters under shelter with fires, sing hymns till early morning. Good voices.
26 March Trek to base Camp (4280m) 4 hours. The track through New Zealand Pass looks highly improbable.This is Dolomite country and riddled with steep cliffs. At the third and final col it is very important to NOT follow the obvious path on the right, which leads to a steep (dangerous) slab and Zebra Wall, but a narrow pass on the left with a faint track to base camp.
VS and DB go to base of Carstenz to check out the start of route and examine the first ropes. Rain.
27 March breakfast at 01:30, start on route at 03:00. Good weather, fixed ropes in excellent condition. Tyrolean Traverse quite quick, all members across in 45 minutes. 08:00 all members on summit. Takao is now oldest person to climb Carstenz. (During training I explain to Takao about double clipping at all times on fixed ropes, "Takao San, that way you will live longer!"
"But I am already 73 years old!").
Peter has also done particularly well, he gave up smoking after 30 years a year ago.
From the summit the extent of the mine can be seen, it looks like they have removed the best part of an entire mountain.
We are visited by two Freeport MacMoran spies. They say they are trekkers, but they clearly have not trekked through the jungle, they are not covered in mud like us. They are just checking to see if we plan to traverse the mine.
28 March Trek to Naseh Dome. Rain most of the day. Quote of the day, Omar on seeing a porter tottering above cliff " Look out! That is a nasty drop below you! There are fragile things in that bag!"
29 March Trek to Rifa Camp. Long day, 9 hrs walking. Members confused about which camp to trek to, porters angry about confusion.
30 March Trek to Ayr Garam. The day begins with a porter strike/argument about the previous nights confusion. 10 hours walking. Quote of the day Doug; "It is a poor state of affairs when Sugapa looks like civilization!"
31 March Trek to Sugapa. Another long day, with diversions to avoid paying bribes to villages. Arrive to find the promised flights for 1 April will not be possible. Tell agent this is no time for April Fool jokes and become slightly incandescent. Agent and his assistants go into denial.
1 April Sugapa. A frustrating day. Called AC in NZ who put pressure on TI to come up with a solution, they re-arrange our flights as a result. Invited to birthday party of Chief of Police (he who needed the first bribe), which turns out to begin with a one hour christian service. Just as we begin to lose the will to live again, the feast arrives. But sadly no beer.
2 April Six connecting flights to Bali, twin Otter, Dash 8, MD 82, 737. Two of the previous aircraft have had accidents in the last six months, the Dash 8 in the the USA and the MD in Indonesia. Amazingly our baggage arrives with us in Bali the same night. The entire team goes to town for a last beery get together.